Those aren't vegetables, Amane...
This visual novel may mostly be a slice of life comedy, but there are some truly horrifying moments as well.Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
- Amane's backstory. Holy shit, AMANE'S BACKSTORY! She and her friends get stranded in the forest after their bus crashes into a ravine. They run out of food and soon resort to eating the dog they had with them after it dies. Two of them then die later on with one of them dying from sepsis and the other commits suicide. Afterwards, Kazuki tells Amane they need to leave, Amane asks why, and Kazuki shows her. The other survivors had become derranged animals, with the two oldest ones, Amane and Kazuki's senpai and their teacher, rutting like beasts while surrounded by the dismembered body parts of the dead students, which they'd partially eaten. To make matters worse, the other survivors had fallen too, and attempt to catch Amane and Kazuki as they flee. As Kazuki notes, they were no longer human and had become "ghouls". And then there is the aftermath: Bar her family, everyone else thought Amane survived by eating the others, completely ignorant to the truth. Amane suffered heavy persecution over this to the point she was given the cruel nickname "Cockroach" and the herd mentality-driven vitriol affected her family as well, all while Amane continued to have nightmares about the incident.
- Also doubles as major Squick, the girl who died from sepsis had apparently been picking the maggots out of her head and eating them out of desperate hunger!
- Michiru's bad ending. Michiru is leaving the academy for 2 weeks to stay at a hospital for tests. The entirety of the dialogue preceding the choice boxes is very foreboding and you either pick a "Go ahead and take care" option or a "On second thought, don't go, stay." option. Players picking on the foreboding subtext will be inclined to pick the latter option...which makes the Wham Line Chizuru delivers afterwards all the more impacting: Michiru tried to kill herself and has suffered permanent brain damage as a result. It shows in how she has empty eyes through the rest of the scene, barely speaks a word, everyone is unsettlingly accomodating of the situation and she hallucinates that a plastic bag is her deceased cat Meowmell and the route just ends there without rolling the credits. To make it even more heartbreaking, there's only a small hint that she's still aware of the fact she loves Yuuji.
- Makina's bad ending. Yuuji kills her Mother, but dies in front of Makina. Makina keeps Yuuji's corpse in a garbage bag while pregnant with his child and also taking his place in Ichigaya. WOW.
- On the subject of Makina, her backstory is nothing to scoof at either. She was kidnapped by some criminals trying to ransom her for money. Her father tried to go in and save her, but he didn't have enough money and was shot and left to die while Makina's mother was watching an opera with another guy. Makina was left there, tied up, alone, for weeks, with no one coming to help her while she had to watch her father's corpse bloating and decomposing. It's a wonder the kid manages to stay as cheerful as she is in the main story. And then there is what she is put through in her route: The bakery she was working in was set on fire, her sister was victim of a car bomb incident and she is eventually shot by some assassins and taken to hospital...and the first thing her mother tries to do is take her off life-support to have her organs donated to her sister Sarina so she can inherit the Irisu Main Branch presidency. All a result of how messed up the Irisu family is.
- Yumiko's breakdown in her backstory and everything leading up to that moment. After finding out her father was only acting loving to her because his son died and he needed a heir and overhearing the one person she could speak to saying she was only pretending to be her friend to hear the sordid details of Yumiko's home life, said friend ends up being the first victing of "School Killer" Yumiko's box-cutter before the latter goes on a Laughing Mad rampage.
- Sachi's dutifulness is less impressive/comedic after her backstory is revealed. She ran away from home on her birthday after snapping at her parents for neglecting her over work and then being loving again on her birthday. They run after her and as they cross the street to get her...they get run over by a truck before her eyes. Keep in mind Sachi was in her early 10s when this happened. She kept blaming herself for it and thinking that if she were a good girl, none of that would have happened. So her dutifulness and obedience was a defense mechanism to prevent her from facing such a loss ever again. But it gets extreme to the point that, to fulfill a classmate's request to get rid of an upcoming test, Sachi set the school on fire, eliminating any possibility of that test being taken.
- Sachi's bad ending. When visiting her mother in the hospital, Sachi realizes she needs to move on from her past and her guilt regarding her parents and then leaves to convey this to Yuuji. She spots Yuuji across the same street where her parents were run over and happily runs to him...and unceremoniously gets killed in the same fashion her parents did. This gets an extra punch as the choice that triggers this is one that at first, makes perfect sense as the right one, making the aforementioned moment come completely out of the left field.
- While an undeniably awesome moment, the Death Glare Yuuji gives Kiyoka when holding her at gunpoint is downright chilling.
- Michiru's backstory. She suffered constant mental abuse from the tutors her father hired because Michiru had learning issues but her father always blamed the tutors, who tormented Michiru as petty revenge. It started with a single woman who spread the word to the other tutors and it got worse to the point Michiru's self-esteem was shattered by the time it was over. Then we get to the self-harm tendencies she displays, especially when the Heart Donor girl's personality starts clashing with hers.
- Following the above, she gets a Hope Spot in bonding with the unnamed girl (Named Nozomi in the Magical Idol Michiru spinoff) from her backstory that she befriended after stopping the girl from commiting suicide. The girl ends up abused by her boyfriend and his friends and tries committing suicide again and Michiru is unable to stop her this time. The anime makes it worse by showing the girl visibly beaten up and with her clothes torn before she jumps off the roof.
